Rex and Lav: Do the playoffs have the same cachet?
How much do the FedExCup Playoffs mean to players? In this "Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav," Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner discuss as the regular season concluded Sunday at the Wyndham Championship.
Video Transcript
I did wanna talk about this top 70 bubble, 'cause obviously that was one of the huge storylines that the PGA Tour kept trumpeting over and over again.
And I think we, we tried to exercise some caution on the midweek episode, because look, over the past three years of the Wyndham Championship, only two players had moved inside that top 70 number, and two players had then fallen out.
It was just one player this time around.
It was Michael Brennan who was leaping inside, and Steven Fisk, who moved outside.
He missed the cut, dropping from 69 to 71st.
Jackson Koywon was 70th entering the week, finished the week at 70th.
I was struck, Rex, by the number of players who sort of seemed ambivalent to making the PGA Tour postseason and the playoffs.
And I will immediately cite as an example of Ricky Castillo, who for much of Sunday was projected to finish 70th.
He ended up finishing 68th, dropping from 66th.
His quote was, quote, "Honestly, I don't really care whether he ends up making it to Memphis."
That quote was not plastered on any of the PGA Tour's social channels.
That wasn't plastered like it was the day earlier from Jackson Koywon, who said, "Every shot matters."
This is a player whose playoff livelihood is hanging in the balance.
He needed to wait around for two or three hours to see whether or not he was going to crack the top 70, and yet he said, quote, "I do not really care whether he makes it to the playoffs."
Now, he was tired.
He played a lot.
He wasn't getting a whole lot out of his rounds.
He was a little bit frustrated with his game.
But Rex, if this is sort of the attitude for the players in this era, I, I was just struck by it wasn't just him, but it was other players who were certainly focused on winning and less so about how things are actually gonna shake out with status and eligibility.
I would guess, and this is just a guess, that that was some sports psychology psycho battle is what that was about.
That maybe he was trying to convince himself that- No this wasn't that big of a deal.
I don't, I don't think so.
He was adamant that he did not care.
Because it is a big deal.
Well, perhaps he doesn't care, and I understand you're probably right.
It's at the end of a long day.
It's at the end of a long week.
It's at the end of a long season that eventually you just run out of, of reasons to care, and maybe that's what this particular was.
But it certainly matters.
I mean, we saw it on the face of Jackson Koywon, and I was entertained by the idea.
They kept going to him, pictures of him in the cafeteria or the lunchroom, wherever it is.
He was waiting this out.
The cafeteria?
Sweating this out.
What, what is this?
What is this, a middle school?
This is a middle school cafeteria?
Yes, the cafeteria.
It's called a locker room.
The food is much better, but it is a cafeteria.
Sure.
It could've been, it could've been player dining.
Dining room.
I was trying to get to player dining.
It was.
Thank you.
Thanks for being a good partner.
Cafeteria.
I appreciate that.
But here's a, here's a young man at 21 years old that has, I'm, I'm sure has never been in this situation, that suddenly you're having to trying to do the math.
You're looking at leaderboards.
You're trying to figure out what projections are, and you have a camera in your face in real time.
That, to me, would've been pretty disturbing if I was Jackson Koywon.
I probably just would've packed up and left 'cause there's nothing I could do at this point.
I'm not gonna make any difference sitting in the cafeteria because clearly you don't have your golf clubs in your hand when you're in the cafeteria at that point.
But no, that, that's ridiculous.
I don't believe that, that Ricky Castillo sh- believes that down in his heart of hearts, simply because it's not true.
Fact of the matter is, again, for all the reasons we just explained, the playoffs are going to be much different starting in 2028.
And we can all probably get a little dismissive of it starting in 2028 'cause it seems to me whatever the final product's going to be, it's going to be little more than probably two events, and it's gonna feel more like an All-Star game.
It's gonna have match play.
It's gonna be cool, but it won't have a real impact on players' livelihoods, on their jobs, on their status going into the next season.
It's going to be whatever that last regular season event is that's going to matter.
And for all the reasons we just explained, there's a reason why you want to be in that top 70 going into next week, and in the top 50 going into the week after that.
N- I'm not even going to have the conversation about the top 30 in the Tour Championship.
But there is huge amounts of pressure and substance riding on what you do at the end of this season.
He might have believed it, but it's not true.
I'm just, I'm just sorta sharing what I observed and, and listening- Sure to the players.
And maybe s- maybe some of it is generational.
Like I certainly heard and saw a different tone from, let's say, a Keegan Bradley, who at this point had 15 in a row, reaching the FedEx Cup playoffs.
If you watched him on Friday afternoon grinding it out, those three late birdies to make the cut, it was hugely significant to him.
Tony Finau had another stretch, 11 in a row, that he was trying to extend to 12.
He was grinding on Friday to make the cut.
It matters to them because they had sort of seen and felt and experienced what the playoffs can do for you, how it can boost your career, sort of the avenues that are opened up.
But in talking to a lot of the players this week, whether it was Ricky Castillo, Davis Thompson, Denny McCarthy, Doug Gim throughout the week, and all those players are sort of different lots in life, there was a lot of rationalizing going on.
Like a, like Doug Gim, for instance, right?
He was, he was 97th in the FedEx Cup standings, and earlier in the week I asked him, you know, "How much pressure are you putting on yourself to, to lock up your spot in the playoffs?"
And he said, "Look, it's already been a really good year.
I began the year with conditional status.
I'm probably further along than I was even anticipating in 2026."
So he had a little bit of freedom.
Now, I think that also helps.
Also the fact, Rex, that you still have eight fall tournaments to play.
There is a massive safety net for these players.
Denny McCarthy was a, was a- another player as well who said, "Look, if I can't get it done this week, it's perfectly okay.
I'm gonna go for the win.
Haven't yet won on the PGA Tour.
It'd be hugely significant for me.
I'd get a two-year exemption.
I'd be in the Masters," all of these other things that come with winning on the PGA Tour.
The fact that you still have eight fall tournaments, I do think blunts a little bit of the significance and the desperation and the urgency that was certainly evident in Wyndham Championships in a, in a bygone era And you have Q School.
So you have a lot of reasons to look forward to right now in this era.
Keep in mind, this era ends at the end of next year, so they only have one more year of this.
And then, then I think we do get to a point where the numbers, the cutoffs are much more draconian.
You end up with a situation where it does matter if you finish inside the top 90, if you finish 91 or 89.
There's a huge difference in that on your career in the long term.
I, I will say, looking at this on Friday as J- as Jason Day was playing and I was watching him on his way to missing the cut, and the idea that he had played in 18 consecutive playoffs, that he had advanced to the playoffs, that suddenly struck me as, as one of the most impressive things I think Jason Day has done in his entire career.
A major champion- Especially with all the injuries a former world number one.
All of the injuries, everything.
I, I mean, all of He, he has a huge family.
It's, it's v- wildly important to him.
All of the injuries that you just referenced.
The idea that you have done this over the course of two decades, been more consistent than anyone else.
When I put it in context, I'm not gonna put it ahead of the PGA Championship or any of his other wins, but that was a very impressive number because you, you had to be so good over that Look at the players who aren't on that list.
Look at the players who've just found a way to drop off.
So I get what you're saying.
This feels generational, where probably the younger players right now are looking at this as a zero- zero-sum game when it comes to the playoffs, knowing what it, what they're going to become in two years.
And you're right, the safety net is there.
You could You have a lot of events in the fall you can play.
You can play Q School.
You can end up with partial status and still do okay next year.
That's going to change, though, starting in 2027.
Yeah, Jason Day, and obviously the goalposts have moved of what qualifies for the playoffs, right?
Like, it was 125, then it's 100, now it's been down to 70.
And Keegan Bradley made this point, and, and Keegan Bradley is, is probably a, a separate story.
I believe he finished 74th, was unable to, to mount a charge.
Dropped from 72 to 74 in the FedEx Cup standings, and he was gonna be exempt on the PGA Tour anyway.
But he certainly kept reflecting on the Ryder Cup and how difficult of a year it was, and how slow of a start he got off to, and how s- much of an emotional hangover.
Like, he was still criticizing the fact that the PGA Tour has gone to 70, which I believe has been in place since 2023.
Like, this is not a new phenomenon that all of a sudden players need to sort of wrap their heads around the fact that they're going to the top 70.
Now, that number, as you mentioned, next year is gonna be boosted to the top 90.
That feels probably a little better, to have as sort of a fully exempt number, and I do think it's going to add some heft to some of these tournaments for the qualification.
But seeing it up close and personal, actually covering the regular season finale for the first time on the PGA Tour, it did validate my theory that the regular season sort of peters out as opposed to what they're trying to do, and which is I, I fully believe that they will accomplish in the championship series, is that they're going to reach a cresc- a crescendo, and all of a sudden the last couple weeks of the regular season on the PGA Tour are hugely interesting.
You're gonna have great fields.
There's going to be, sort of a, a, a lot of significance attached to those tournaments as opposed to right now, which are bereft of star power and players who are sort of looking at the fall and being like, "Meh, if I don't get it done now, I get to sort of make my hay those weeks."
